"Hey." I greeted Mason Monday morning.
He stood up and stretch his arms out. "I deserve it."
I stepped onto the table bench and slapped him across the right side of his face then I slapped him again across the left side.
"You good?" He asked me.
"Yes." We sat down and I instantly started filling the silence. "Let's do it tonight. Dad's team is playing their rivals."
"Do what?" He looked over at me, and I nearly laughed at the sight of the two red handprints.
"What we were talking about the other week." I mentally face palmed myself at that vague statement. "The thing with your Mom's listings."
"Oh!" He nodded in understanding. "Okay, is Hannah gonna be home tonight?"
"It doesn't matter." I pulled out my notes for English.
"Won't she say something to your dad?" He watched me flipped through my notebook.
"She promised she wouldn't say anything if I snuck out." I lied. "Payment for letting her use my phone to text Justin."
"Why did she use your phone for that?" He bumped his knee against mine.
"Hers was dying, and Dad texts us both when we go out." I told him as I read my notes.
"Okay." I saw him go through his bag.
"And that'll be the only time you'll ever see a Jacobs girl in lingerie." I warned him.
"I deleted the messages anyway." He waved me off.
"Okay." I said quietly and stared down at my notes. Did he delete it because he didn't want that kind of picture of Hannah on his phone or because he didn't that kind of picture of me on his phone?
*****
"Shit, why didn't I do laundry yesterday?" I muttered to myself as I dug around through my underwear basket in my closet.
"Because we spent nearly the whole day at the mall." Hannah said from my doorway. "What are you doing?"
"Getting my outfit for tomorrow ready." I lied.
"Oh, why don't you just put out something you got from Victoria's yesterday?" She suggested and I glared at her.
"I'm not wearing lingerie." I told her even though she didn't know why I was against the idea.
"No one will know." She laughed and shook her head. "I do it all the time."
"Mason will know, okay." I stood up and groaned. "This wouldn't be that bad if I hadn't spilled my drink at dinner."
"Hails, no one will notice if you're wearing lingerie or a stained bra." She rubbed my shoulder. "Not even Mason."
He will notice because he's gonna be seeing me in my underwear, I thought. "Good thing I got that grey set."
"Yup." She smiled and started walking out of my room. "You gonna watch the game with us?"
"No, I'm gonna study for my English quiz then read a Tess Oliver book." I felt bad about lying to my twin and best friend, but I couldn't tell her the truth. She would tease me about it even after death.
"Okay, love you." She closed my door.
"I love you too." I called out after her before stripping out of my tee shirt and jeans, so I could change into the only clean bra and underwear I had; well I had the other set I got at Victoria's, but I wasn't going to wear a red lace lingerie set with a push up bra around Mason. He would die of laughter if he ever saw me in that.
I pulled a pair of denim shorts on and was pulling a clean tee shirt on when there was a light knock on my window. It was Mason; I smiled at him and grabbed the bag before walking to the window.
I made the Shh gesture as I before I slid my window open. "Hannah's watching the game with Dad and it should end around eleven."
"So we have what, three hours?" He asked and I nodded.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." I mumbled under my breath when I slid my window all the way open. "What's the story if we get caught by the way?"
"The truth?" Mason took my bag from me as I climbed out of my window.
"How the fuck do you do this every night?" I asked him once I hit the ground and turned around to close my window.
"Years and years of practice." He shrugged and grabbed my left hand with his free one. "Come on."
We walked out to the street and I swear he could hear my heart trying break out of my chest.
I've never snuck out of the house before, what if his mom catches us and calls my dad? Wait, she wouldn't call my dad, she would drag me back and break the door down.
"So why is skinny dipping on your list?" Mason asked as we turned a corner.
"It sounded like fun." I told him and walked a little closer to him.
"Really?" He raised his eyebrows at me. "It sounded like fun?"
"Are you calling bullshit on me?" I smiled and swung our hands back and forth.
"I always call bullshit on you, Hails." He dropped my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist. "It's super easy to do since you can't bullshit at all."
"Rude." I tried to sound upset, but that's hard to do when you're laughing.
"Quiet or you'll wake the neighbors up." Mason whispered into my ear.
"Oh no, that would mean we can't go swimming in a pool that doesn't belong to either of us." I joked. "How did you convince your Mom to give you the key to the listing?"
"I didn't." He said after a minute.
"Mason Adam Banks." I crossed my arms over my chest when he stopped in a driveway. "How are we supposed to get in?"
"Climbing the gate." He grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the gate that lead to the backyard. "I'll give you a boost."
I rolled my eyes but climbed over the gate with his help none the less; I dropped down on the side and took a couple of steps back, so Mason wouldn't hit me on his way down.
"Pool's this way." He said after he landed much more gracefully than me.
"Do you think the cops would know if I was the one who drowned you?" I asked him as he dropped my bag by corner of the house just in case his Mom did show up.
"Why would you drown me?" He asked then pulled his tee shirt over his head.
"Because you said you got your Mom's permission for us to be here." I started unbuttoning and unzipping my shorts.
"No, I said I would ask my Mom for permission." He shook his head as we finished undressing in silence. "Matching bra and panties? Sexy."
"Shut up Mason." I felt my face heat up and tried to cover myself up. "What are you doing?"
Mason started to shimmy out of his boxers, but stopped at my question. "Hailey, you do know what skinny dipping means, right?"
"Yes, but can you please keep your underwear on?" My face was on fire. I wasn't uncomfortable with Mason being naked; I just don't trust myself around him in his birthday suit.
"Okay." He pulled his boxers back up and started walking towards the pool. "You coming?"
"Yeah." Right after I check your ass out a little more.
"So I can cross three things off my list." I said as slowly eased into the water. "Shit it's cold."
"It is nighttime, Hailey." Mason splashed me.
"Shut up." I splashed him back.
"Make me." He made the 'come at me' gesture, and my brain instantly went to 'kiss him.'
"Fine." I started towards him but nearly slipped when the pool floor fell under my feet. "It's not a flat pool!"
"Oh yeah, it's an infinity pool." Mason told me before going to float on his back.
"You're such an ass." I swam to him.
"But you love me." He said but didn't realize I had dived under the water under I pushed against his back, causing him to turn over.
"Sure do, bestie." I tried to swim away, but I was neck deep and Mason was already grabbing my ankle. "No!"
Mason pulled me under with barely enough time to take a breath; I squeezed my eyes shut as my head went under then opened them once I was fully under.
I could barely see Mason in the moonlight that filtered through the water, but he instantly put his hands on my waist. I shook my head before pushing him away and swimming back to the surface.
"Didn't give you enough time to catch a breath?" Mason asked when he came up a few seconds later.
"Yeah." I brushed my wet hair out of my face. "So happy I didn't put my hair in a ponytail."
"That would be painfully to take out." He reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.
"It's easier to just cut the hair tie out." I shook my hair out. "My hair is so much better underwater."
"Everything's better down where it's wetter." He sang off key.
"Stop." I splashed him. "You're terrible."
"I'm better than Justin." Mason splashed me back. "At least your ears aren't bleeding."
"They're about to be if you keep singing like that." I teased him. "This pool layout is weird."
"What do you mean?" He started swimming to the wall closest to the house.
"Well, most pools have the steps and shallow end near the house and gradually get deeper the further away you go." I swam after him. "The steps for this pool are over on the left side and the drop off into the deep end is immediate, so nearly the entire pool is five or more feet deep."
"Yeah." He nodded. "But this pool also isn't a rectangle, it's more bean like."
"Hmm." I dragged my top teeth over my bottom lip. "So when's-"
Suddenly there was light cascading across the pool, and Mason quickly peeked over the edge of the pool before pulling us down.
"Shit, my mom's here." Mason murmured in my ear.
"Oh." I said as he pulled me closer to him; I buried my face in his neck and loosely wrapped my legs around his waist. "We're fucked."
"Not if we don't move and stay quiet." He ran a hand over my hair to soothe me, but my mind was racing.
What if she saw us? What if she dragged us to my house soaking wet in our underwear? What if Dad punished me by banning me from seeing Mason? What if-
I froze when I felt Mason tracing invisible patterns on my lower back right above the waistband of my underwear. What if you kissed him? My heart asked and I squeezed my eyes shut.
No... but I want to. Suddenly my heart was pounding for a different reason.
"Basorexia." I mumbled against his wet skin.
"What?"
"Nothing." I pressed my cheek against his shoulder until, after what felt like a century, the light turned off. "Is she gone?"
"Yeah." He said, and I unwrapped myself from him before I acted on my lust fueled thoughts.
"Come on, we don't have much time left!"
*****
"Shit." I groaned as we redressed ourselves.
"What?" Mason had his shirt halfway on.
"I picked a white tee shirt." I held up the shirt I had been wearing.
"Take mine." He pushed his shirt off his arms and handed it to me.
"But you'll be shirtless." I shook my head.
"You're holding my white tee shirt." He smiled at me. "And I'm okay with my shirts sticking to me."
"Okay." We exchanged shirts and this one ended a few inches past my shorts's hemline.
"Oh God, this one is tight as fuck." Mason frowned before taking the shirt off and dumping it in my bag with the towels.
"So you still ended up shirtless." I rubbed my forehead.
"Oh well." He shrugged and grabbed my hand. "We have like fifteen minutes."
"Okay." We walked to the gate before Mason helped me over it, he pushed it. "Are you kidding me?"
The fucking gate wasn't locked.
"How didn't it swing open when we climbed it?" He asked the sky.
"Fifteen minutes, remember?" I tugged on his hand and lead us out of the backyard.
Mason closed the gate. "Why don't I give you a piggyback ride back?"
"Really?" I smiled brightly. He hasn't given me one in years.
"It'll be quicker." He kneeled down, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.
He was right, the walk back was a lot quicker this way. I kissed him on the cheek after I got inside and bid him goodnight before rushing to gather pajamas and ducking into the bathroom to take a shower.
"Have fun studying?" Hannah asked me when I stepped out of the bathroom after my shower.
"Yeah." I nodded and tucked some loose strands of hair behind my ear. "I had more fun reading my book though."
"Is that Mason's shirt?" Hannah pointed at the shirt tucked under my arm, the one Mason just gave me.
"Yeah, they're cozier than mine and I like wearing them when I lounge around." This wasn't a lie.
She just smiled at me. "You're adorable, Hails."
I sighed in relief when she went into her room without another word.
***AN***
Hope you guys enjoyed!
Let me know what you thought!
~ChasingMadness24